South-North Story
by Vievin
Summary: Bart Allen meets another Bart Allen. They go for a run and chat. Sort-of-songfic inspired by "South North Story" by mothy feat. Kagamine Rin.


The quotes from the songs are the translations made by Pricechecktranslations, found on the Evillious Chronicles Wiki.

* * *

Bart was at in a city, one he didn't recognize. The tall skyscrapers were all the same and the afternoon sun cast long shadows on the winding streets. He was in his Impulse costume, a white spandex suit with a jagged red line running down, complete with yellow-tinted goggles. His russet hair dangled in front of his face, he blew it out of the way as he studied the colourless map that he hadn't noticed he was holding. Apparently he was in the south part of the nameless city.

Bart briefly wondered where Robin and Kon were before heading up a random street, northwards. Walking turned to jogging and jogging into running, the buildings blurring by as he sped by them. He paid the people no mind, he was unrecognizable in colours, although he stopped for a sandwich or a dozen at Big Belly Burgers. He felt something drawing him northwards, still, until he arrived at an intersection and saw a red and white streak pass him, heading southwards. The world slowed down as he tapped into the Speed Force and the streak transformed into... another him?

The other Impulse was different from him, the red line on his suit being a straight, arrowed line instead of a jagged lightning bolt, and he was wearing a visor, not goggles. Other-Impulse noticed him the same time he did and screeched to a halt, grasping a similar map to his. For an agonizingly long moment the two just stared at each other before Bart spoke.

"Hello." The other Impulse – he wondered if his name was also Bart Allen, 'cause everyone's got to have a civil name, even Superboy has one – blinked.

"Hello," he replied uneasily. Another second of silence passed before Bart couldn't take it any longer.

"You'reme!" he exclaimed. "You'rejustlikeme, morelike. You'reaspeedsterandhavemycostumeandallthat. What's your name?" Other-Impulse put on a grin as he crossed the distance between them to extend his hand.

"I'm Impulse! I don't think I'm supposed to tell my name. This secret ID thing is still so retro!" Bart lit up at the phrase, unconsciously slowing down his speech to meet the other's.

"I'm also Impulse! And I'm also from the future!" Other-Impulse went slack-jawed.

"That's so crash! You might really be another me! Let's sit down and talk somewhere. You familiar around here?" Bart shook his head.

"Nope, I thought this is like, your hometown or something. A random place then?"

"Yeah, like a rooftop or something. Two Impulses sitting down for a plate of Chicken Whizees would draw attention. How about that?" Other-Impulse pointed up to a tall-but-not-too-tall house. Bart just grinned.

"Race ya!" As expected, they arrived at the roof at the exact same time. They laughed and high-fived before sitting down. Other-Impulse just stared at Bart before speaking, slowly.

"You know, while building the time machine, I researched all sorts of timestream-related stuff. One of the books mentioned parallel universes. What if we're like, mirrors of each other? And this," he gestured around to the bustling city beneath them, "is a chance meeting or something?" Bart shrugged.

"Dunno, I don't like thinking about this stuff. Makes my head hurt. We may not even share the same name. Mine's Bart Allen by the way." Other-Impulse laughed.

"Mine too! See? We're totally parallel universe mirrors! I guess your grandpa is Barry Allen, the Flash." Bart frowned.

"Wait, Barry Allen as the Flash? Nah, he went to the thirtieth century with Grandma Iris. The current Flash is Wally West." Other-Bart blinked, clearly surprised.

"Wally West as the Flash? In my universe he's still Kid Flash. Retired, even."

"Huh, that's interesting." For a few seconds, they sat in silence, which was both of Bart's least favourite activities, so he stood up, brushing his russet bangs away from his face. Other-Bart's shorter hair seemed a bit attractive now.

"Wanna go for a run?"

"Sounds crash."

While running – more like speedjogging in Bart's opinion, but then again neither of them were in a hurry – they filled each other in on their lives, laughing in the end. How one Bart had hypermetabolism in the thirtieth century and was brought to the present to be cured and hidden from the government – _trust the world to develop into a dystopia if given the opportunity_ , Bart thought bitterly. How the other grew up in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, running from the Reach that wanted to exploit his powers, building himself a time machine so he could undo it.

"Our world are highly similar but a little different," Bart remarked, studying his counterpart. Mirror-Bart was happy, energetic, everything he only pretended to be. "At least you didn't have an apocalypse to prevent."

"And you're not stuck with an annoying Bat, an even more annoying super-clone, and a sorta-has-god-powers chick, and Cissie is actually not bad..." Bart couldn't help but laugh.

"You wouldn't believe it, but I actually do. If by 'annoying Bat' you mean Tim Drake, and 'annoying super-clone' Superboy, although I don't talk to him much, and 'sorta-has-god-powers chick' Wonder Girl, _never_ call her that to her face because she can and will kill you by the way. I have no idea who 'Cissie' is though." Mirror-Bart lit up.

"Woah, so your world has the Young Justice too! Also, I _knew_ I lip-read that right, Robin is Timmy Drake!"

"Whoops, spoilers. I don't think you were supposed to know that." The two Barts laughed. The town was far behind them, the setting sun casting soft light on their faces.

"I mean, what are the odds we are both from the future, have the codename Impulse and get involved with a sidekick group? With our personalities, we chose different paths, but ended up in the same place. Crazy."

"It's simply foreordination." Mirror-Bart blinked.

"No idea what that means."

"It's crash," Bart said, pushing his visor to the top of his head. No reason for secrecy with an alternate version of himself. Mirror-Bart followed and squinted.

"Are your eyes green?"

"Yeah, trademarked Allen family eyes," Bart grinned, before noticing the other's. "Yours are gold! We look exactly the same, except our eyes!"

"If we switched places, nobody would even notice," Mirror-Bart snickered. He joined in, their identical laughs echoing in the empty desert. The sun's last rays cast an orange light on their smiling faces as they held hands.

"It's time for farewells, huh?" Bart said.

"It was fun, 'another me'," the other nodded. "Bye-bye!" He sped away, northwards still.

"If we have the chance someday..." Bart shouted after his counterpart as the scenery started to fade into a bedroom. "At that crossing..."

 _Let's play again, okay?_


End file.
